


The Titan's Rest

by UngentleRaven



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Business, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Other, Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-11
Updated: 2017-08-11
Packaged: 2018-12-14 05:14:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11776248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UngentleRaven/pseuds/UngentleRaven
Summary: Ever wondered what a modern AU where Erwin Smith is head of a funeral home would look like? WELL LOOK NO FURTHER!This might sound twisted/funny. And I assure you it will be twisted, and it might even be funny from time to time. But there will be violence, smut etc. etc. at later chapters. You have been warned.Erwin is the head of the funeral home the Titan's Rest, he has recently recruited Levi who is acting as an assisstant of sorts to him. They are called in to get a body from the morgue. More exactly: the body of Carla Jäger.





	1. Another body for the funeral home

**Author's Note:**

> So this will be the first time that I post anything on this site (or for a long time at all for that matter). Hope you’ll enjoy! And don’t hesitate to message me/comment for tips or opinions, I don’t bite… much. I apologize in advance for any spelling/grammar mistakes, english isn’t my first language so I’m doing my best ^^’  
> \- UngentleRaven

The setting sun gave its last warming touches to the body on the floor. She had died in a simple dress, there was nothing special about it. This was a hard contrast to how the children weeping at her sides felt about her. To them, she was so special. She had cared for them, bathed them, comforted them when they cried, laughed with them... How could something like this had happened to someone they love so much?

Eren cupped his hand around his dead mother’s cheek. So cold. She must have been laying here for quite some time now. He and Mikasa had just come home from school. They had been arguing about something when they entered the door… when they found their mother lying on the floor… neither he or Mikasa could remember what exactly they were arguing about, there were no space for it. Not now. Every single problem they’ve ever had seemed so trivial.

He removed his hand from her cold cheek and gazed down upon it. He thought he’d see the deep red colour of blood that had been transferred from his mother’s cheek to his hand. Instead there was nothing, nothing but a cool bare palm that had become a little dirtied from throwing that rock against Jean earlier. Her blood had already coagulated.

“Eren”, Mikasa whispered in between two sobs. He heard her voice, but was unable to respond. “Eren!”, she said a bit louder this time. His head jerked up from his chest and his red eyed gaze met Mikasa’s. He moved his lips, but no words came out.

“What?!”, he finally pushed out in response. It sounded much harsher than he had meant.

“Give me your phone”, Mikasa looked at him with tears in her eyes. But now her voice was steady. She had to be strong. He had been strong for her that time, now it was her turn to return the favor.

“My phone…?”, Eren’s voice trailed off into oblivion and he got a glazed look before his eyes.

“Mine is… out of batteries”, Mikasa responded. Choosing her words carefully, “I need to use yours. We have to call for help”. Eren turned his head towards the backpack that he’d thrown on to the ground as they entered the house. Mikasa got up and rummaged through the backpack filled with all sorts of junk and schoolbooks.

_ Got it. _

As quick as her fingers would move she called the emergency number. A few tones sounded through the phone, then someone picked up on the other side. Her eyes were burning with tears, but she has to stay strong. Stay strong for him.

“My… my mother… she…”, Mikasa trailed off. She inhaled deeply, “my mother is dead, me and my brother found her now as we came home from school”.

 

***

 

Hanji stretched in the chair, it had been a long day. With a heavy sigh they stood up and got ready to finally return home. The time was only 5pm, but it had been a hectic day. They really deserve some rest. A slight buzzing came from the lab coat hanging off the back of the chair they’d been sitting in. The buzzing was accompanied by the catchy tunes of “Another one bites the dust”. Hanji smacked her palm against her forehead.

“I almost forgot my phone in the office... AGAIN”, they laughed out to themselves into the otherwise empty room. As they reached into the coat to grab the phone the tunes got louder. “Hello!”, they answered with a happy voice, “I was just about to go home and take a relaxing nap by the tv. So someone better be dead.”

Hanji’s smile was replaced by a grim look as they sighed, “Bring her here…”

 

***

 

“Alright, I have some paperwork to take care of”, Erwin rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, “and you’ll have to take care of any clients that might come in”. The phone rang out in the silent room, “oh, yes. And take phone calls”.

Levi stared at him with a look that was something in between ‘I’m going to kill you’ and ‘please end my misery’.

Erwin smiled towards the little grumpy man, “you did want to help me… right?”.

“Fine”. His face softened a bit and he took the five large steps towards the phone resting on the desk. “The titan’s rest, Levi speaking”. Erwin snickered to himself as he closed the door behind him, leaving Levi to his duties. Levi may be grumpy. But he had slowly been growing on Erwin for the last month that he’d been in contact with him. It was only just this week that he’d gotten him to agree to help him at the office from time to time - in exchange for payment of course.

_ Who am I kidding, I basically begged him to come and work for me. It’s a lonely business to be in all by myself. _

The door suddenly swung open, showing Levi standing in the doorway. His expression had not changed from earlier.

“There’s a body in the morgue that someone named Hanji wants you to come and take care of”, Levi raised his eyebrows and made a face towards Erwin. “They seemed… eccentric… yeah, I believe that’s the right word for it. Eccentric”.

“Hanji is indeed… special”, Erwin laughed, “but they’re great at what they do. I would even argue the best. So just bare with them.”

“Don’t the family of the deceased usually contact you?”, Levi asked with a frown. “I just find it odd that the pathologist themselves call you and ask you to pick up the body”.

“Hanji might have talked to the family at the hospital or something. But you are correct, this isn’t a common occurrence”. Erwin stood up and walked towards Levi. “Your first day and you’ll get to come with me and pick up a corpse”, he laughed, “how does it feel?”.

 

***

 

A man walked quickly through the hallways of the hospital. He stopped by a door. This was it. As he took a step inside he was greeted by two surprisingly pair of strong arms gripping him tightly around the chest and abdomen. He embraced the two teenagers and held them close. From behind them he could hear a voice.

“Grisha”, Hanji looked at him from across the room.

“Hanji, can someone tell me what has happened?”, he almost yelled towards Hanji standing in the corner. He didn’t like to shout, but he couldn’t control it much longer, he needed to know what was going on.

“They haven’t told you?”, Hanji’s expression was grim.

“All I know is that something has happened to my wife and that I needed to come down here ASAP”, he looked down at his children. “Since it’s down here…”, his voice cracked “I’m guessing that it’s not good”.

“It’s not… I’m sorry Grisha”, Hanji looked apologetically at their coworker, “Carla, she has passed away”.

He could feel his legs turning into jello. So many times he had been on Hanji’s end, delivering these kinds of news to others. He never thought that he’d be standing here one day.

“Her artery simply burst. She died within seconds. She didn’t feel any pain”, Hanji sighed as they locked eyes, “I’m sorry for your loss”. Grisha’s legs could no longer bare the weight of the situation, so he sank down onto the floor together with his children. Their whole world had just collapsed in the matter of seconds.

 

***

 

Erwin and Levi got out of the car, Levi looked at the building. Once again he was here, only this time he hadn’t come for one of his own. Erwin put a hand between his shoulderblades and gently pushed forward, he must have noticed how uncomfortable this place makes him.

“Just follow my lead, you got this”, Erwin reassured Levi and shot off a smile towards him before he started to walk towards the big doors.

“Sure thing, eyebrows”, Levi muttered under his breath before following Erwin in through the hospital doors.

The insides were just as Levi remembered them. Sickly white, the mere sight of the walls could make you throw up. The smell wasn’t much better, the distinct hospital smell entered his nostrils and reminded him of all the deaths and illnesses that are housed underneath this roof. He clenched his fists and took a deep breath through his mouth, a sudden urge to clean himself creeped up on him.

“You never really get used to the smell”, Erwin looked at him. Levi shook his head slowly while looking around.

“And the air in here… it’s sort of…”, Levi crossed his arms as he searched for the right word. They came to a halt and Erwin pushed an elevator button. “Dry”, Levi finally said, settling with the closest word he could find to describe the feeling. “My lips always get chapped when I spend time in a hospital. I also always feel the need to drink more water while I’m in here”. Erwin simply nodded as an answer, the elevator made a sound and the doors opened. They entered the elevator in silence and Erwin pressed one of the buttons. Then turned to face Levi and observed him quietly.

Numbers indicated that they were slowly descending. Levi noticed Erwin looking at him, however he did not meet his gaze, instead he looked down to his hands and observed his fingernails while slouching against the backwall. He made a disapproving noise as he discovered some dirt under one of his nails.

Hanji was waiting outside the elevator when they stepped out of it.

“Erwin, sorry to call you in so late this day”, Hanji apologized. “I thought it would take longer to perform a post mortem on her, so I thought I could call it in tomorrow. However…”, Hanji looked down at the floor. “It’s dr. Jäger’s wife. So I thought it best to… handle… right away. I called you since I know that he always speaks so highly of your business”.

They all looked at each other. Everyone knew who dr. Jäger was. He’s well known in the area.

“Didn’t they have two children? Teenagers if I remember correctly”, Erwin furrowed his brows as he searched for the answer inside his own mind.

“Teenagers, yes”, Hanji answered him, “Eren Jäger and Mikasa Ackerman. The latter they adopted a few years back”.

“Right, right”, Erwin nodded and crossed his arms. “Well anyhow, our car is parked around back. So we can take the body right away down to the funeral home.”

“They’ve said their goodbyes’ so I don’t see why not. You can go down and introduce yourself and your… assistant? and I can take the body”. Levi stiffened as the words left Hanji’s lips. He hadn’t been ready for that just yet.

“Oh, right. You’ve yet to properly meet each other! Hanji this is Levi and Levi th-”

“This is the grumpy one you spoke to on the phone. Yeah yeah, nice to meet you and all that crap”, Levi took a step forward and looked Hanji directly in the eye. Then he raised a hand and flicked a finger against their glasses. “Come on shit glasses, don’t we have a body to get?”

As Levi started walking down the hallway Hanji turned towards Erwin with a big smile.

“I think I might like this one”.

After those words Hanji took a few quick steps to catch up with Levi and show him in to the correct room. Erwin just watched them as they turned a corner and disappeared out of view.


	2. I Survived

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get a small look back at how Levi came to work together with Erwin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was in a writing mood so I decided to write another chapter. I hope you'll enjoy!  
> \- UngentleRaven

“Dr. Grisha Jäger?”, Erwin poked his head through the crack in the door. “May I speak with you? This might be a bad time, I can come back la-”, Erwin was unable to finish the sentence before Grisha interrupted him.

“This is as good of a time as any, there won’t be a good time for this…” his voice was thick, you could clearly hear that he’d been crying. Erwin entered the room and looked at the - now shattered - family before him.

“Dr. Jäger. I’m very sorry for your loss”, Erwin shook his head slowly “it’s always the hardest when the ones we don’t expect to pass leave us”. He met the teenagers eyes, they were so young and yet they needed to go through something like this. “Hanji called me, assuming that you’d want the services of the Titan’s Rest. Is that correct? Otherwise we can leave and I’ll arrange for some other to come and help you”.

“No, no… Hanji was correct in their assumption”, Grisha sighed and looked at the two teenagers who were sitting against the wall. Staring out into nothing. “I’ve only ever had good encounters with your firm. Your father before you did well too. So… we’ll need your services”. He took a shaky breath and pinched his nose bridge with his thumb and index finger. “Can we… can we do this in the morning? You are free to move my wife, but I need to…”, he trailed off.

“Don’t worry about that. I just need you to sign this paper so that we can move Carla without having any legal issues”, Erwin took out a piece of paper and a pen from a folder that he’d been carrying underneath his arm. “The rest is nothing that needs to be done at this very moment, we can deal with that at a later date”.

 

***

 

In a big room on a metal drainage table the body of Carla Jäger rests. Her eyes were glazed over and her skin had gone a grayish kind of pale. Levi looked around the room, trying to hide how uncomfortable he was with the whole situation. Hanji on the other hand simply waltzed in and stood next to the body. With a swift motion they then proceeded to poke at the arm of the body with the back of a pen.

“There’s nothing to be scared of”, Hanji gesticulated towards the table, “she’s dead. Poff! Gone, doesn’t exist. Or well… she exist. More specifically her body still exists. But she’s gone”. Hanji threw their arms up in the air and made some kind of strange noise only to burst out in laughter after.

“How can you laugh at a situation like this?”, Levi looked disturbed.

“This job is far too interesting to not be laughing. Sure the situation may be grim. But I can’t go around every day feeling sad. Death is a part of life, we can’t let it rule us”. They looked at him and smiled, “I like to think like this: it was fun while it lasted!”

Hanji took a spin around the room and stopped before Levi. He looked at them, baffled.

“Let’s move a body”, they snapped with their fingers and shot finger guns at Levi. He was dumbfounded.

“You’re truly all sorts of crazy…”, he managed to squeeze forward through the dismay that he felt towards Hanji. All he got in response was loud laughter and a body bag thrown over his head.

This was going to be a long day.

 

***

 

As they rolled out the body they met Erwin by the car. None of the three said anything and only opened the car and lifted in the body. Erwin and Hanji said goodbye and they were off.

They rode the car in silence. Levi was simply looking out through the window chewing his lower lip, sunken in deep thought.

“You weren’t supposed to get the body”, Erwin finally broke the silence. Levi didn’t bother to answer. He simply continued to look out through the slightly tinted glass. “I know that you weren’t ready for that”, Erwin pushed his lips together so they formed a tight line. “I should have pushed for you to talk with the family”, he sighed and furrowed his brows once more. “I’m sorry”.

Levi turned his head and looked at the man that’d just apologized to him.

“Tsk…”, he sounded as he waved with his hand, “it’s fine. I survived, didn’t I?” His hand dropped to his lap and he stared at it. “I survived…”

 

***

 

“Farlan”, Isabel hit his head with an open palm “look at the road when you drive. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!” She looked at him with a playful anger dancing in her eyes. “OOOR perhaps you want to get us killed!” Her head turned to the backseat and she looked at Levi. “Looks like we have a traitor amongst our midst!”

“Tsk…”, Levi rolled his eyes “he’s been with me for far too long. If anyone’s a traitor here, it’s you Isabel”, he pointed a finger towards her and watched her face turn red with the playful anger. She released her fury upon him. Farlan nudged Isabel and teased her together with Levi. “I need to take a piss”, Levi announced loudly. Turn here, there’s a station. They all had a smile resting on their lips as they turned into the gas station.

They opened the car doors and got up. Levi stretched towards the clear night sky. “Hey… it’s pretty beautiful out here, isn’t it?”, he leaned against the car and observed the stars.

“Yeah if you get passed the smell of hobo”, Farlan leaned against the car together with Levi and snickered. Isabel ran around the car and came over to their side. She then proceeded to lean against the two of them, looking up.

“It is beautiful…”, she said with a big smile. “It’s great that you’ve finally got a driver's license Farlan, now we can get out on all kinds of adventures!”, she pushed herself away from the two and spun around on one leg. “HERE’S TO FREEDOM”, then she leaped up in the air with a big victory shout.

“I’ll fill up our freedom with gas”, Farlan straightened himself up and then pointed to Levi, “you can go and take that piss”.

It was a small gas station, there was only one employe at this hour of night. They were truly in the middle of nowhere. Real freedom, at long last. He followed the signs that pointed him to the direction of the restroom. With a hand resting on the door, he closed his eyes.

_ Please be clean, please be clean, please be- _

He opened the door.

_ Fuck. _

There was shit smeared over the toilet and some even on the sink. He almost gagged at the sight of it. Truck Stop restrooms… No fucking way that he was going to use this toilet. He slowly backed away from the toilet and walked outside once more. A quick trip behind the shop, near the woods. That would make a good spot for a piss. Levi trailed off away from the gas station and away from his friends. The light from a car hit his back as he walked around the corner. Another lonesome traveller along this long road.

He decided to walk further back since there were now others at the station.

_ Not everyone might enjoy seeing me standing here with my dick out. _ He thought to himself with a small snort of laughter.

The door into the shop opened and closed once. Probably Farlan going in to pay for the gas. The sound of a car door opening and closing could be heard, accompanied by the sound of heavy steps and then the shop door opened once more.

Loud shouting from inside. Levi’s head jerked up from where he had stood and admired the trail he left in the sand with his pee. He shaked the last drop off and zipped up his pants. It was so quiet now… maybe he imagined it.

Three loud bangs echoed through the silent night. Levi’s heart dropped. That was the sound of a gun.

Before he was able to run back to the light he could hear the shop door open and a pair of feet that were running fast. Then a car door opened and closed and the car drove off.

As he turned the corner with his heart in his throat his heart immediately dropped. It felt like it had stopped. He couldn’t think. On auto-pilot he entered the shop and looked down on the pools of blood forming under his friends.

He fell down to his knees next to his friends and stared at their now empty faces. They’d just been so full of laughter… so full of life. Now… they’re just… blank. He could feel his eyes burning. His heart started beating once more, but this time with heightened intensity. Almost like it was going to take a leap right out of his chest.

With a scream he fell down to the floor with his friends, tightly gripping their hands. Not caring that he was laying in their blood.

_ I’m sorry, I’m sorry, why did I have to suggest that we’d stay here? I’m so sorry. It’s all my fault. _

 

***

 

“Didn’t they have any family?”, Erwin looked at the pale man sitting across from him.

“No…”, his voice was surprisingly strong considering that he’d just seen his friends get murdered. “I was their only family, and they were mine…”, his voice cracked as he said “we’re… I’m… alone”.

 

***

 

Levi drew a shaky breath and turned towards Erwin and repeated, though this time louder.

“I survived”.

 

***

 

After they loaded off the body at the Titan’s Rest Erwin looked at the time.

“It’s 11pm… no wonder I was hungry”, he looked at Levi. “Might be too late for that, but what the hell. Want to join me for a bite? There’s ought to be some place open by now”. He digged up his phone from his pocket while waiting for Levi’s answer.

“No thanks”, he responded walking out from the bathroom where he’d just washed his hands. “It’s a friday night, and I intend to drink myself to a stupor”, he took the jacket resting over the back of the chair and gave a small wave to Erwin.

“Wait”, Levi stopped dead in his tracks. “Mind if I join in?” Erwin was still looking down in his phone.

“It’s a free world, do whatever you want”, Levi continued towards the door.

“I know that I can come with you, what I’m asking is if you want me to come with you?”, Levi turned around. Erwin had lifted his gaze from the screen and raised his eyebrows as to underline the question.

“Tsk”. Levi turned around and walked out the door.

“I’m taking that as a yes”, he fished up his keys and exited out after Levi. With the Titan’s Rest safely locked up they were ready to hit the town.

They walked next to each other down the sidewalk. A few bars came and went as they continued to walk down the road. Erwin found himself wondering where Levi liked to drink, he had attended most of the bars in this town but never found Levi there. Ten minutes passed, then twenty. They’d taken several turns by now and were in a residential area, not a party district. He gave in to the question that had been gnawing on him for a while.

“If you don’t mind me asking…”, Levi stared straight forward. “Where exactly are we going?”

“My place”, Levi said without a second thought. Erwin looked surprised. “What? I hate people. Do you really think that I’d just go out and drink to socialize? If that’s the case you’re dead wrong”. In truth, Levi was right. He wasn’t really the type to go out and socialize with other people.

“Drinking… alone though… isn’t that a bit like, alcoholism?”, Erwin regretted asking the question right as it left his lips. However Levi didn’t seem to be bothered.

“I’m not alone. Am I?”, he looked at Erwin.

“No… you’re not”, Erwin nudged his side with his elbow.

 

***

 

They entered his apartment. Admittedly it wasn’t in a particularly good area of the town, but the inside was spotless. In the hallway Erwin was met by a dark wood cupboard with a vase of flowers resting on it. Not a single petal had fallen from the flowers on to the surface beneath it.

Levi took his coat and hung it next to his on a hook. Shoes were placed right under the coats. Neatly pushed against the wall. The walls were two coloured, the lower half was a deep green colour, almost like moss. And the upper half was white with a small pattern on it, the both sides were separated by a golden border.

As they went along further inside he could see that Levi did not only have a great taste in furniture and design, but he was also very clean. Everything was neatly organized, almost religiously. It was a beautiful home.

Levi went straight to an old gramophone cabinet, as he opened the old piece of furniture you could see the many whiskey and wine bottles inside

“Whiskey or wine?”, Levi turned towards Erwin, “which is your poison?”

“I think I’ll take wine this time. Red”, Erwin took a seat in the couch not far from the gramophone cabinet. Levi nodded in agreement.

“It’s that sort of day”, he corked up a bottle of wine and got a couple of wine glasses from the counter. As he poured the red wine the lapping sound from the wine leaving the bottle filled the air around them.

As he sat down he offered one of the glasses to Erwin, who accepted and brought the wine straight to his nostrils. With a deep whiff he smelled the wine and swirled it around in the glass. Levi on the other hand simply leaned back in the sofa and looked at the glass a few moments. Then he brought it to his lips and downed the entire glass in one movement. Erwin stared at the small man beside him.

Levi ignored the stare and poured himself another glass and raised it to the ceiling. Then he downed it once more.

“Shouldn’t you take it easy with that?”, they locked eyes and Erwin pointed at all of Levi. “I mean… you’re not that big of a guy”. A sharp and sudden laugh escaped from Levi’s lips. Erwin was shocked, he had never heard him laugh before.

“Don’t you worry. I can hold my liquor”, Levi smiled to himself as he poured yet another glass. Well he tried to but the bottle housed only so much as to fill a quarter of the glass. He let out a disapproving tsk-sound and sat the - now empty - bottle of wine down at the table before him.

They both let the silence fill the room once more and basked in it until Erwin broke it.

“You did well today”, he nodded in agreement to what he’d just said. “Your help will be greatly appreciated”. Erwin raised his glass towards Levi and then took a sip. Levi looked down into the glass of wine, he swirled it like Erwin did earlier and then put it down on the table on a coaster.

“Why did you help me?”, Levi looked grim and put another coaster in front of Erwin, who in return looked at Levi with a look in his eyes that Levi couldn’t really pinpoint.

“I don’t know…”, Erwin finally said. “While I was working with you on… the whole… Isabel and Farlan thing…”, he sighed. “I guess you can say that you grew on me. I see potential in you. If you have the motivation, you can do great things”. He averted his eyes and looked around the room. “I think I felt a connection between us. Like… we could be friends?”, his gaze met Levi’s again and he smiled. “Am I in the wrong here?”

Levi leaned forward in his seat, grabbed his glass of wine and looked straight into Erwin’s eyes. He raised his glass towards Erwin and shot off a small crooked smile.

Erwin felt his heart jump at the sight.

“To a new friendship”, Levi stated. Still with the small smile resting on his narrow lips.

“To a new friendship”, Erwin answered. Raising his glass.


End file.
